During conference sessions involving audio and/or video communications between participants at two or more end points, under certain instances it is necessary to add another participant at a further end point to the existing, ongoing conference. This could be due to a number of reasons (e.g., the conversation flows in a direction in which another participant is needed).
When it is desired to add another participant to a conference session, a current participant (i.e., a participant already within the ongoing conference session) often must add the new participant to the conference. This is typically performed by the current participant placing the conference session on hold at that participant's end point, connecting with the new participant, and then attempting to add the new participant to the conference. However, based upon certain conditions associated with the conference (e.g., if a participant of the conference who wants to add another participant did not originally initiate the conference session), this procedure may generate a chained conference, where the new participant is placed into a new conference session that is linked to the original, ongoing conference session.
Thus, the chaining that typically occurs when adding participants to conference sessions results in a greater number of conference ports/MCUs required for connecting new participants to the original or existing conference. In addition, this can reduce the quality of user experience within the conference session and also result in wasted bandwidth utilization.